In oil, like life, the secret to happiness is to lower your expectations. That isn’t just a piece of homespun, nihilist wisdom. It’s what’s happening beneath the surface of the oil market. Hedging is how exploration and production companies manage their market risk. Locking in a price for future output — by, for example, selling oil futures — provides ...

  Something strange is happening in China’s steel market. Hot-rolled coil, a type of spooled sheet metal used to make everything from automobiles to trains and toasters, now costs less than the rebar used in reinforced concrete. That’s a rare event, and it’s still rarer for the divergence to be this wide. Flat products like hot-rolled coil are generally more ...

  What did Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer achieve in attempting to deny a vote on Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court? Not keeping Gorsuch off the court; he was approved on Friday. Not preserving the filibuster for use against any future Trump nominee; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abolished the tactic on Thursday. Not ...

  Turkey voted in support of a historic referendum by 51.41 to 48.59 that will greatly expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office. Although Erdogan has won, there are question marks that are being raised. Opposition parties alleged fraud and the European Union branded it as unfair and said they would challenge the results. Top EU officials said ...

  For more than a century after the advent of commercial electrical power in the late 1800s, electricity use in the US rose and rose and rose. Sure, there were pauses during recessions, but the general trajectory was up. The initial drop in electricity use in 2008 and 2009 could be attributed partly to the economic downturn. But the economy ...

  It’s a highly choreographed event in which the future leaders of a secretive Chinese institution are announced to the world via a complex internal formula. No, not Beijing’s upcoming Communist Party congress, which traditionally appoints the new leadership — we’re talking about Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.’s succession plan. The appointment of Rupert Hogg to follow Ivan Chu as chief ...

  A recent report from the UK suggested that the country eliminate speed bumps from its roads to ease vehicle passage and limit carbon emissions. This has since given rise to heated debate. In the US, homeowners often push for more speed bumps in their neighborhoods to slow drivers, making local routes for deliveries more cumbersome each year. But — ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Two Saudi Arabian telecommunications stocks surged on Monday on hopes that troubled operators have finally turned the corner, while Abu Dhabi real estate firm Eshraq was helped by a plan to tie up with state fund Mubadala. The Saudi stock index edged up 0.1 percent as Zain Saudi jumped 8.9 percent and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) added ...

  Bloomberg The dollar fell and Treasuries held gains as soft inflation data from the US continued to feed into markets after the holiday weekend. US stocks edged higher as upbeat economic data from China offset lingering geopolitical concerns. The S&P 500 Index rebounded from a weekly drop, though trading was light, with many key markets still shut for Easter. ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s privatisation drive is likely to result in around 100 new stock market listings in sectors including mining, healthcare and retail, a top HSBC executive said on Monday. Georges Elhedery, HSBC’s chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, did not give a time frame for the listings but said they were part of ...